Site Search Navigation

Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

No Debate: It’s Lincoln and Douglass

By David W. Dunlap November 1, 2011 3:13 pmNovember 1, 2011 3:13 pm

David W. Dunlap/The New York TimesA life-size sculpture of the abolitionist Frederick Douglass stands atop the staircase at the West 77th Street entrance to the New-York Historical Society. It was unveiled last Friday.

For decades, the New-York Historical Society has struggled against the architecture of its own building, which conveys — in its cold grandeur — an institution that is insular, impenetrable and inscrutable.

Lincoln on Central Park West.

A three-year, $65 million renovation gave the society a chance to make a public statement about its purpose and credo, and to arrest the attention of passers-by in a way that would welcome and intrigue them.

Life-size bronzes of these two great figures, who knew one another in life, were quietly unveiled (unbubblewrapped?) over the weekend. Lincoln, almost 7 feet tall in his stovepipe hat, stands at the foot of the Central Park West entrance. Douglass stands at the top of the West 77th Street staircase. They were created by StudioEIS in the Dumbo quarter of Brooklyn and installed Oct. 25. The society’s formal reopening is to take place Nov. 11.

Frederick Douglass statue.

In recent years, the society has made a point of including enslaved New Yorkers in the stories it tells of city life. The 2005 exhibition, “Slavery in New York,” drew eager, curious and agitated crowds. The new sculptures extend that spirit, declaring implicitly that New York has never grappled with more important issues than slavery, emancipation and freedom — and that the struggle isn’t over yet. On entering the building, visitors will be confronted immediately with an image of President George Washington not only as founding father but as slaveholder.

Louise Mirrer, the society’s president and chief executive, said in a statement: “Lincoln and Douglass quintessentially point to the story we tell through our exhibitions, programs and extraordinary collections about the open-ended history of American freedom, and our nation and city’s accomplishments, as well as failures to make good on the promise of liberty and equality for all.”

It is worth noting that when the society was founded in 1804, slavery still existed in New York State. It is also worth noting, as Ms. Mirrer does, that Douglass attained his freedom in New York City in 1838. The importance of the city in the progress of Lincoln’s political career is well known.

“These two iconic figures — conjoined for the next 100 years — beg the unfinished questions,” said Ivan Schwartz, a co-founder of StudioEIS, who oversaw the creation of the sculptures. His research was so intimate that he even measured the black beaver top hat Lincoln wore to Ford’s Theater. It is in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution.

“When that box was opened, it gave me goosebumps,” he recalled.

“Don’t breathe,” a curator cautioned. Mr. Schwartz imagined she meant that the artifact was breathtaking in its significance. What she actually meant was that to prevent mold from growing on the pelt, it had been dusted in arsenic.

David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

What's Next

Looking for New York Today?

New York Today is still going strong! Though no longer on City Room, New York Today continues to appear every weekday morning, offering a roundup of news and events for the city. You can find the latest New York Today at nytoday.com or in the morning, on The New York Times homepage or its New York section. You can also receive it via email.

Lookin for Metropolitan Diary?

Metropolitan Diary continues to publish! Since 1976, Metropolitan Diary has been a place for New Yorkers, past and present, to share odd fleeting moments in the city. We will continue to publish one item each weekday morning and a round-up in Monday's print edition. You can find the latest entries at nytimes.com/diary and on our New York section online.

About

City Room®, a news blog of live reporting, features and reader conversations about New York City, has been archived. Send questions or suggestions by e-mail.